Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Hebrews 11:13 - 11:16
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Heb_11:13-16
13All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.
Heb_11:13 "All these died in faith, without receiving the promises" This is the heart of the comparison of the OT people of faith in chapter 11 to the believing Jewish recipients who were on the verge of "shrinking back" (cf. Heb_10:38; also 2Pe_2:20-22).
▣ "but having. . .and having. . .and having" Note the three descriptive, parallel phrases!
▣ "they were strangers and exiles on the earth" Literally, alien residents who had no rights as citizens (cf. LXX Gen_23:4; Psa_39:12; Php_3:20; 1Pe_2:11). Physical reality is not the true, eternal reality. This world was not their home.
Heb_11:15 "if" This is a second class conditional sentence called "contrary to fact." They did go out and they did not go back!
Heb_11:16 The true reality is spiritual, as seen in the metaphor of a heavenly city whose builder and maker is God (cf. Heb_11:10). God responds to trust and faith (cf. Heb_2:11; Heb_11:2; Heb_11:39; Heb_13:14). "Country" and "city" (Heb_11:10) are theologically parallel as places prepared by God for His faith children!